


another ticking bomb to bury deep and detonate

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: the odds were never in our favor [10]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Brainwashing, Dark, Happy Ending, Memory Alteration, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Nightmares, Past Character Death, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rebellion, There's a wedding, Unreliable Narrator, ish, nightmares of graphic deaths, so at least we can count on that, the hargreeves siblings were all victors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-11-21 09:35:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18140489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: There is something to be said for the survival instinct that exists within Victors- the utter refusal to give up, the utter denial of the inevitability of death.Whether they bowed to Capitol pressure and became propaganda, whether they whored out their bodies, whether they joined the Peacekeepers, whether they became Capitol technicians while connecting with District 13- they all did whatever they could to survive, just as they started back in their Games. They all know what it's like to live in that Arena, to continue to try and make anything of their lives that they can.There is a certain insanity born in Victor's mind, in the years they survive past the end of their Games. For better or worse, they can't let go. They won't give up, no matter the cost. No matter how much it destroys them, they have to keep going, to keep themselves and the people they love alive.Ben died for them, for this broken, fucked-up family of all-too-human monsters. They can't give up on Vanya, can't let his death be in vain. They don't know how to.This is what it comes down to, in the end: the refusal to accept the reality that not everyone can be saved.(Vanya gets hijacked.)





	another ticking bomb to bury deep and detonate

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Savages" by Marina and the Diamonds, which is an absolutely fitting song for the Hunger Games universe.  
> I wrote a vast majority of this story to "Rue's Farewell" from the Hunger Games soundtrack and "Prisoner of My Past" from the musical Spies Are Forever- at least, until the happy stuff starts happening.
> 
> And so hey, this will probably never be referenced in-story, but the head scientist who let the current team that brainwashed Vanya was a guy named Harold Jenkins- fun detail.

_I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe._

_If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other._

**-Mary Shelley**

 

When the Capitol propos and the intermittent  _Hanging Tree_ propos stop playing, only five people believe that Vanya is still herself, somewhere under that Capitol facade.

“There is no way that she’s really still your friend,” President Handler says, “It is rather obvious that she’s a tool for the Capitol. She's performing for their propos and giving their speeches. She doesn't even need to be escorted or guarded because they clearly trust her."

“Oh, fuck off,” Diego says, never one to let things lie. "She’s just being used as propaganda."

The President's gaze is like ice. "Let me remind you, Diego Patch," President Handler says, "That Allison Leonidas and Luther Hominoidea are still on probational status here, no matter what you may argue."

But Five's eyes are colder than the President's. "She's been brainwashed, isn’t that clear? They've probably hijacked her."

Klaus raises an eyebrow. "Hijacking?"

Five nods. "Beetee Latier, before he bit the bullet a few years back, helped the Capitol design the hijacking program for the Capitol's prison division. He told me the outline of the plans. Hijacking's a brainwashing program based off of tracker jacker venom, in which the memories are manipulated through torture and classical conditioning, and the person can be manipulated into associating memories with different emotions than they originally felt- hatred towards friends, and the like. It's very possible that she could have been hijacked. Once she gets back, we can run bloodtests as well as give her an interview to evaluate her mental state and see if she was actually working willingly for them. But we can't try anything until we get her out of the Capitol and here to District 13."  

 _We’ve just gotta rescue her first,_ Allison signs, and Five nods.  

- 

Despite President Handler's obvious distaste for the idea, Five pulls another one of his negotiation miracles- how the fuck he does it, Diego will never know- and soon enough there's another team dispatched to go find and bring Vanya back to District 13.

"What do you keep giving up in order to save us?" Diego asks Five that night, after everyone else has gone to bed.

Five looks over at him, and in the dim light of the lower levels Diego can't read his expression very well. "I'm not going to tell you," Five says, "Because I know you'll just get pissed if I tell you. So just trust me, okay?"

Diego looks at Five, always so fierce and stubborn and just a bit terrifying, and he's a bit concerned that whatever Five's done is going to hurt him. Five's always been unbelievably strong and hard for his age- Diego's worried that Five has taken that utter, hyperfocused drive and turned it into something self-destructive.

Five sighs. "I can tell you're already working yourself up into concern or guilt or some other irrelevant emotion. Diego, I told you not to worry about it for good reason, okay?"

Diego looks at this kid. There's no way a sixteen-year-old should be this mature, should be worrying about the emotional state of a man fourteen years older than him. There's no way Five should have the weight of protecting the entire family on his shoulders.

But this is war, this is Panem, and the should-bes don't mean much. You just have to figure out how to survive the best you can, ignoring what you can and dealing with what you must.

So Diego nods, understanding that he's still going to worry about Five- Five's his family, Diego doesn't know how not to care- but that he has to trust Five not to be fucking himself over. (ANd also knowing that if Five gets himself hurt in the process, that Diego will be there to help him pick up the pieces of the wreckage left over afterward.) 

"Just let me help you out if you need it, okay?" Diego says.

Five smirks, but there's something a bit fond in his predator's smile. "Not that I'll need it, but sure. If it soothes your conscience."

Diego rolls his eyes. "Fuck off."

-

Three weeks later, the five former Victors receive comm messages that Vanya is in the infirmary (apparently it'd been a bit of a rough process extracting Vanya), but they're not too worried, because Vanya's finally here, in District 13. They all rush to the infirmary from their various stations.  
  
The five of them all have some version of a smile on their face when they arrive into the hospital room where Vanya is being held. After all of the shit they've gone through- being used as propaganda, being made into killers, watching death after death- finally having their whole, fucked-up family together is enough. 

(But Vanya’s return to her family, unfortunately, is nowhere near as heartwarming as Allison and Luther’s.)

They all pause at the door, taking in Vanya's new appearance in person.

Her silver eyes and almost glowing white skin are unnerving to look at. She doesn’t look like a Victor, a child who was forced into the Arena just three years ago. Instead, she looks like a belonging of the Capitol’s, like any other Capitolite. She looks more like a weapon than a human.

But Allison and Klaus- they know what lies under that mask. They are familiar with tattoos and dyed hair and the trappings of the Capitol. They know what one does to their body in order to fit in, to survive. They know what kinds of bruises and scars can be smoothed over by Capitol surgeries, the parts of yourself that can carved into whatever the Capitol wants you to be. They don't blame her for her new appearance.

So for a moment, it seems like everything is going to be okay, despite her unnerving appearance.

Never the coward, Five steps forward. "Vanya, it's good to see you again-"

And then Vanya lunges forward, hands going for Five's throat, and that illusion of hope shatters. Everyone springs into action to pry her hands away from his neck. She's got an almost supernatural strength to her, fueled by some unknown source of anger, and it takes Luther and Diego to grab her hands and hold her back.

Klaus and Allison help Five up as he gasps for breath, and it hits Klaus like a mutt to his throat. 

Klaus has never seen the kid look so vulnerable before. He's the youngest of them, yeah, but there's never been anything very fragile about him. He's the most callous killer of all of them, someone who killed ten tributes with barely a blink, but right now, his neck is red with Vanya's fading fingerprints. Five's taking in gulps of air, eyes wide, and Klaus realizes just how small and young he really is.

"Let me get him," Vanya snarls, voice full of hatred in a way that Klaus has never heard it before. "He's a mutt, he hurt all those people-"

(What the fuck did the Capitol do to her?) 

Now there are guards spilling into the room, rebel soldiers with handcuffs and guns, and how did everything fall to shit so quickly? This was supposed to be a family reunion, not a murder attempt.

“We’ve gotta listen to her,” Klaus says, but it's a faint plea compared to the fact that she just attacked the Rebellion's head technician. None of the rebels want to listen to him or even remotely respect him, as they pull a near-feral Vanya away from Luther and Diego and start to lock her into handcuffs.

"Listen to Klaus," Five rasps, rubbing at his throat, and despite his injuries, his tiny frame, and his obvious reinforced fragility, he still commands a sense of respect. Klaus has to wonder just how the fuck he manages to pull it off. "He's got a point."

The rebel soldiers only listen enough to keep from killing Vanya, instead dragging her away in cuffs, and Klaus is feeling just as lost as he was when he first saw Allison and Luther on the propos, when he first awoke on the hovercraft and realized that he was missing half of his family.

Things weren't supposed to go this way. 

-

The rebels put Vanya into a soundproof solitary cell, but that's only enough to protect them from her, not the other way around. Five has no illusions about what they will do to Vanya if they let the rebels at large- who have no alliance to the woman who narrated the bombings- get a chance at Vanya's cell. Even with her brainwashing- and no one knows how deep it goes, yet- she can't withstand that many desperate murder attempts.

“One of us has to be with her at all times,” Diego says, “It’s not safe to leave her alone.”

“But she’s a Victor,” Luther says, “They all look up to us for staying alive-”

Five bristles. “Everyone in this District wants to kill her for what she did,” he hisses, working his words past his bruised vocal cords. “It’s hard enough to get them to sympathize with Luther and Allison, and we watched them withering away on screen. Do you idiots really think that Diego, Klaus, and I can really keep her alive 24/7 just with our words alone?”

“The little shit’s right, you know,” a familiar, harsh voice says, and the five of them turn to see Johanna Mason, head shaved and eyes as dangerous as they’ve always been, enter the room. “They’re only keeping her alive because of your protests, and that’s not enough to keep her alive if someone decides to sneak in here in the middle of the night. Everyone here knows how she won her Games, and it wasn’t because she had the physical strength to kill everyone. Most of the rest of you, though- you won your Games by slaughter. The idea that you Victors- killers- are protecting her, have formed a vanguard to keep her safe- that’ll be enough to keep her safe for now.”

Five smirks, smug and satisfied by being backed up by an outsider, but Klaus speaks up. “And what about you?” Klaus asks.

Johanna shrugs. “I don’t trust her, honestly, but I don’t trust anyone. So I won’t help protect her, but I’m also not going to stand against you guys."

Luther seems indignant, but Five just nods. "That's the most we could expect from you."

Johanna slides Five a sideways smirk- not a happy smile, by any means, but an approving one. "For whatever it's worth, good luck, kid," she says, despite how much he hates the term. "You've found yourself a decent family, and I hope you all make it out of this shitstorm."

"You too," he says, and she nods back at him before turning and heading back down the hallway.

"Always a fun conversation with that ball of sunshine, right?" Klaus jokes.

Allison nods, signing,  _She's rather nice to talk too. She understands the nightmares._

Five looks through the small window into Vanya's cell, the tiny slit made of two-way glass. Vanya's handcuffed to her bed, curled up into a small ball, and for a moment he can almost forget the way her fingers wrapped around his throat. When she's asleep like that, he can remember her first Games as a Mentor, when he'd left the main room after the declared win to find Ben, Diego, and Klaus curled up on the sofa, with Diego asleep on the chair opposite them. He can remember the good times (if that could be considered good) before she was turned into this angry creature before him.

Five's not one for weakness, so he doesn't voice his doubts. He doesn't speak aloud how he feels about what's going on, how desperate he's starting to get. He has killed hundreds of Peacekeepers, has orchestrated bombings, has made himself into a weapon of the Rebellion as much as he was a weapon of the Capitol's, just to save his family. That can't all be for naught. He won't let it be.

Five just wants his sister back. Is that too much to ask?

-

The next day, they call Peeta in to help with Vanya.

"Why me?" Peeta asks, eyes wide with surprise. He's clearly not averse to the idea, just a bit uncertain as to why they're choosing him. "I'm not a soldier or a Victor or even a full-fledged rebel, yet."

Peeta's dating Katniss, who is a Victor just like them. He should understand, at least a little bit, about what it's like to kill for the Capitol. He won't blame Vanya as much as the rest of the Rebels will- or, at least, that's what Five is banking on.

"You're good with words and you can think on your feet. You also know a pretty good amount about the Games thanks to Katniss. Vanya also doesn’t seem to have any extreme dislike for you,” Five says, “Unlike the five of us, and you don’t seem to have any dislike for her either. We need someone to talk to her and find out what her motivations were specifically changed to, so that way we can figure out how to fix her.”

Peeta nods, but Katniss, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be as on board with the plan. "And why do you think that she won't just try to attack Peeta?"

"Well, she's cuffed to the chair in there, first off," Diego answers, "And Peeta's not a Victor or a Capitolite or anyone famous. You weren't even dating him openly until you got here, which means there shouldn't be any video footage of him that she could have been brainwashed against."

That seems to make Katniss relax a little bit, but not entirely. Her shoulders are still tensed, her lips pursed.

That is resolved by Peeta, though, by him putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Katniss, I'm gonna do this," he says, "I believe them when they say that Vanya's still a good person, and anything I can do to be useful I will."

Katniss looks at him with such trust in her eyes, and Klaus can relate. He's pretty sure he looks at Dave like that on a regular basis.

"Alright," she says, though her tone is clearly still reluctant. "But if it looks like she's going to put even a finger on you-"

Peeta smiles at her, seeming almost charmed by her threatening tone. "Then you'll destroy her." Katniss nods firmly, and he leans in and gives her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you in about an hour, cheesebun."

And this is what makes Katniss soften, a smile finding her lips despite everything. "What did I say about pet names?" she asks as she takes Peeta's hand in her leather-gloved one.

"To use them as often as possible," Peeta responds with an even fonder smile than hers.

Five rolls his eyes, clearly done with all the romantic moments. "I'll get you the keys to the cell and an armed guard."

Katniss' gaze snaps away from Peeta and her expression hardens as she nods. "Good," she says, "I can't let my best media man get injured."

-

Peeta enters Vanya's cell, and though the look in her eyes is suspicious of him, she doesn't lash out, which allows those watching from a screen in the command center to breathe a little easier. Five's theory is holding up.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Peeta says, tone easy, and Vanya seems to relax just the slightest bit. "My name's Peeta Mellark. I'm from District Twelve."

Vanya nods, inclining her head just slightly. "Vanya Svenson. District 8."

"I'm just here to ask you a few questions," Peeta says, "Is that okay?" Vanya nods, and he gives her a small, reassuring smile. Diego has no idea how he does it. "Thank you. Now, why did you kill all those people in the Districts?” Peeta asks, and Diego admires the amount of self-control it takes him to talk about the dead citizens of the Districts. In another life- and maybe, after the Rebellion is over- Peeta would make a fantastic politician. He's definitely got the skill with words, the charisma, and the wit to back it up.

(If Allison, Five, and Peeta joined up- well, Diego doesn't think that even President Handler or President Hargreeves would be able to stand against him.)

“They allied with the rebels and hurt the people I care about,” Vanya says, voice quiet and matter-of-fact, just like Klaus remembers it. “My family. So I destroyed them.”

Oh, fuck. Her  _family_. Vanya's an orphan with no family back in her District- which means that she must have thought about the five of them- previously six- as her family.

Diego knows that Vanya is a killer, yes, but she's a killer with a clear sense of justice and motive. She cried after her tributes died in the 74th Games, and only killed indirectly in the 73rd in order to survive. She must have thought she was protecting Luther, Diego, Allison, Five, and Klaus from the rebels when she was dropping those bombs.

But then why did she attack Allison when she got out of the elevator?

“Tell me about your family,” Peeta says, and those listening in the commander center hold their breaths.

Something in Vanya's expression twitches, and for a moment even the silver eyes and white skin can't disguise the rawness of her emotions. “I loved them, and I think they loved me," Vanya says, "But then the Victors and the rebels destroyed them. I wanted justice, and I destroyed them."

Oh no. That means that Vanya thinks that they're- Diego almost can't bear the thought.

The Capitol brainwashed Vanya into thinking that the five of them (and Ben) weren't her family, but rather the villains in her story. She killed thousands of people to take down  _them_ , her family, in specific, not just the rebels in general. She was trying to kill him and Five and Klaus and Allison and Luther.

No wonder she attacked Allison.

Back in the command center, one of them finally speaks.

“We’ve gotta fix Vanya,” Five says, “We’re going to help her. There's just no other option."

Diego looks at Five, taking in the glint in his eyes, just a little this side of insane, and the clench of his jaw. There's something about the matter-of-fact tone that Five is speaking in that makes Diego believe him. If there's anyone who can fix the unfixable, it's Five, the genius Victor.

(Since when did he put all his faith into a sixteen-year-old? Was it during the Quell, during the Rebellion, in the Capitol? Diego can't tell, but he does know that he would follow Five anywhere.)

-

There is something to be said for the survival instinct that exists within Victors- the utter refusal to give up, the utter denial of the inevitability of death.

Whether they bowed to Capitol pressure and became propaganda, whether they whored out their bodies, whether they joined the Peacekeepers, whether they became Capitol technicians while connecting with District 13- they all did whatever they could to survive, just as they started back in their Games. They all know what it's like to live in that Arena, to continue to try and make anything of their lives that they can, to live and just  _outlast_ as much as they can.

They have spent their whole lives since they were first airlifted out of the Games dreaming of death and destruction, of the dead bodies of tributes. They are haunted by the boom of a cannon, by a voice announcing their win in the Games.

They have all outlasted twenty three children who were stuck in the same Arena as them. They have buried tributes in every Games that came after them. Not a single one of them has brought home a living Victor, and yet they still continue to live without putting a bullet in their brain.

There is a certain insanity born in Victor's mind, in the years they survive past the end of their Games. For better or worse, they can't let go. They won't give up, no matter the cost. No matter how much it destroys them, they have to keep going, to keep themselves and the people they love alive.

Ben died for them, for this broken, fucked-up family of all-too-human monsters. They can't give up on Vanya, can't let his death be in vain. They don't know how to.

This is what it comes down to, in the end: the refusal to accept the reality that not everyone can be saved. 

-

Vanya’s still not sane. She still doesn’t completely trust the other Victors. But with Peeta's gentle voice telling her stories and constant, small interactions with the other Victors- not enough for her to kill them, but enough for them to show her that maybe she shouldn't try to kill them in the first place- she starts to feel a little less like avenging the family she can't even remember.

Instead, she begins to notice the small things about them that make her feel safe, make her feel okay in starting to trust them.

In between the nightmares of the blood and bombs and death, she dreams of cuddling with someone, of comfort, of kind voices and laughter over small bites of rich food and a blanket tucked in a little too tight around her.

Vanya dreams of a family she once had, the family that Peeta tells her is actually the Victors she hates so much.

-

Vanya's growth towards forgiving the other Victors for uncommitted crimes starts with Klaus.

Klaus' is a face that Vanya cannot help but hate on sight, but there is nothing but kindness in his smile. That's the best way to describe him, honestly; Klaus is too kind and a bit too brave for his own good. He spends the most time around her, ignoring her glares and half-bitten-back remarks in favor of telling her stories about his boyfriend, Dave, or the lives they all lived before the Rebellion.

(She still sleeps in her cell, and though they've removed the handcuffs by now, there's still a guard posted outside the opened door to protect their precious Victors who deign to visit her. Which they all do, though Klaus ends up in her cell most nights, telling stories about their lives before the Quell and the destruction of everything she remembers loving.)

Klaus has a tendency to dance around topics regarding the Arena and the Games, but he does tell stories about parties they went to during her Victory Tour, of Ben cuddling with her, of Vanya's first time trying cheesecake at a Capitol party, of Allison and her playing a game of pool late one night after a client of Allison's had finished up, of the whole lot of them playing a game of Spades the night before the 74th Opening Ceremony.

(She wonders how this man- who, from what she can remember, killed not a single person in his Games, who only speaks to her in the kindest of tones now- could be someone she hates so much, has such a desire to destroy.)

"I want you to meet my boyfriend," Klaus says one night, and there is something almost...natural, she might say, about how he fits into District 13, about how he works with everyone here.

Vanya looks at him, at the face she knows she should hate, about his sheer joy when speaking about Dave, and she nods. Klaus grins. "Okay, give me five minutes to go grab the lucky guy and bring him here."

When he arrives, Dave, unlike Klaus, sparks no instinctive hatred in Vanya's glossy memories. His kind smile and firm handshake doesn't remind her of the Games or of Victors in any way. Vanya wonders why a man like him- so obviously gentle and good- could have decided to date a killer like Klaus.

So she wants to learn more about him. "How did you two meet?" she asks Dave quietly. Even if she's not sure how to feel around Klaus, Dave is innocent in this situation.

Dave signs,  _It's a long story_ , and with the movement she realizes at least part of that story. There are very few mute people in Panem who weren't-

"You were an Avox, weren't you?"

Klaus freezes, but Dave nods.  _Since your Games,_ he says, and she remembers the snow falling outside of her small circle in the meadow, the screams that came at night, the ringing clash of blade against blade.

She looks at Klaus, and thinks- well,  _maybe_...

Vanya still hates him. She just doesn't think she's entirely sure why, anymore. 

-

Vanya is haunted by dreams of these Victors' Games, of what they did to win. She dreams of Luther slamming metal spikes into people's necks, of Allison stabbing the girl from Four in the back, of Diego slicing open tributes' carotid arteries, of Five blowing tributes to kingdom come, of Ben strangling a girl to death, of Klaus pushing a girl into a snarling mass of mutts-

Of herself, connecting the wires that would freeze everyone in the Arena to death. Of herself, sitting in the Victors' chair as her Games were played back and she watched as those kids' skin turned blue and they collapsed into death.

They're not the only Victors who killed people, who destroyed families. She's guilty of that too. SHe killed them during the Games, and then afterwards-

Afterwards. She designed the power systems that allowed the sky to open up and drop larger bombs than ever before, just to protect the family she could barely remember.

She did what she had to for good reason, but these Victors, the ones who destroyed her family- they did too.

Is she really any better than them?

-

Then Vanya meets Claire, Allison's daughter, who Vanya can't help but fall in love with immediately. Claire, unlike her mother, is so obviously good and kind. She isn't even a soldier, like Dave- she's just a little girl who can't hide the ear-to-ear grin she feels when she meets Vanya.

"I have lot of uncles, but you're my only aunt," Claire says, wrapping Vanya in a hug. Vanya's always been small, so she doesn't even have to crouch down to give Claire leverage. "You're special."

And god, Vanya just loves Claire. For an hour, Vanya just plays pretend with the little girl, up until the moment that Allison arrives to tell Claire goodbye and to tell her that they'll see her for dinner.

So Claire heads back into the orphanage's group of kids and Vanya finds herself alone with Allison, who she should hate but is so fucking confused by.

"So," Allison says, smiling at Vanya, and Vanya doesn't smile back. She does look at Allison, though, staring her in the eye. "You have a good day?"

And once again, Vanya's head struggles to fit itself around Allison's actions. The glossy memories Vanya has of her family- a family she can barely remember, their names slipping from her tongue- have a hard time holding up against Allison's small smile, the way she hugs Claire, the way she speaks so kindly and warmly.

"I..." she swallows. Vanya's head is pounding, her memories fizzling and popping back into being, and she hates it. She hates this uncertainty, this feeling of not even knowing her own reality, of not being able to trust her own memories of the past. How can she know what is going on and what she believes if everything that comprises her base of knowledge seems to be unstable and wrong? "I need a moment alone."

Allison nods. "I'm here for you, okay?" she says, and it's so confusing. There's no reason why Allison should be offering sympathy, should in any way care about Vanya.

So Vanya just nods and hurries down the hallway with her Rebel guard in tow. She doesn't want to think about Allison and her offered hand, her hugs, her daughter. She doesn't want to feel sympathy for these people who destroyed her family.

-

There are plenty of bad days going forward, days in which Vanya can't tell who is right and what is right and she wakes up screaming at her family and nothing ends up making any sense.

Other than Klaus and Allison, the Victors are rather bad at the idea of "comfort." Five has no idea how to do it whatsoever, too harsh and sharp and focused on the Rebellion. Diego sometimes tries to have conversations with Vanya, but he maintains so much physical distance that's hard to compensate for.

And of course there's Luther, who is hardened and cut-off from things, with rough words that only know how to be blunt.

“You tried to kill Five," Luther says to Vanya through the door of the cell one day, when she's stuck in a glossy memory and a long ago Games.

“That’s because he deserved it,” Vanya says, uncertainty clear in her voice, and she can see the tightness in Luther’s face, the anger in his clenched jaw. She kind of relishes it, this ability to inflict emotional pain on these people that her memories insist on hating.

"No, he didn't," Luther says, and his voice is rough with emotion. She remembers seeing Allison and Luther interviewing together in the Capitol, remembers both of Luther and Five's violent Games, and she wonders just how and why Luther cares about Five. They're both killers, manipulators, liars. Why would anyone like that care?

(Then again, why does Vanya care? She herself is a killer as well.)

There is something honest about these Victors that doesn't remind Vanya of the glossy memories of her family, something she almost craves seeing. Underneath the blunt words, the harsh questions, they do really care. They're certainly trying their best, she has to give them that.

"Maybe you're right," Vanya mutters, thinking about Allison and Claire, about how even killers can have people they care about.

Luther blinks. "What?" he asks, eyes wide, and she just closes her eyes.

"Nothing," she says, turning over in her bed so that she's lying facing the wall. 

- 

So the truth isn't comfortable, in any sort of way, but it helps. Vanya starts to see the world closer to how it is, if not the actual truth itself. 

Vanya eventually is allowed to go places without a constant Rebel guard, as long as she is with one of the other Victors. That's not as much of a punishment as she had thought it would be- she's actually starting to like (or at least tolerate) her time with the other Victors.

The good days start to come more often, days when Vanya looks at the other Victors and she doesn't see them as villains but instead as people, as the family she once loved. On those days, her memories are less glossy and hard to pin down, and more solid, consisting of the good things that have happened since she got here to District 13.

Just getting to know Claire and Dave doesn't fix everything. Getting to know the other Victors again doesn't help entirely either. But it does help.

Her reality is getting easier to determine, her feelings towards these people making more sense as they tend in a positive direction.

-

Katniss' squad of Victors (Finnick, Diego, Klaus, Peeta, Gale, and various high-specialized Rebels) gets summoned into the main command room, leaving behind their usual duties. Once they arrive at the command room, Klaus notices that Allison and Five are already there, talking to Plutarch.

"Allison, Five, and I have been working on a new propos strategy to combat the damage done by Vanya's propos while she was last in the Capitol," Plutarch says. "And it involves a wedding."

Klaus blinks. He gets that Plutarch loves his melodrama, but _what_? A wedding? Their propos have always focused on the Mockinjay and the damage the Capitol did to the Districts and the Rebels helping rebuild and occasionally the other Victors' efforts to help. Everything's been war-centric- why change things now?

Allison nods. _We can turn the Capitol's methods back on them. Show Panem that two people who truly love each other are happy here in 13, not in the facade of the Capitol. Give them something to look up to, something real, something the Capitol would never have allowed their Victors to choose on their own._

"We have three couples to choose from, if we decide to go forward with this," Plutarch says, "Annie and Finnick, Peeta and Katniss, and Dave and Klaus." Klaus' heart skips a beat. Him and Dave? "The sight of Vanya and the rest of the Victors at any of their weddings would work well to show both the true loyalty of the Victors and the enduring growing spirit of the Rebellion."

"All three of them are already being used as propaganda props, but Klaus has been used far more as a symbol of gentleness and healing than Katniss and Finnick, who have been used more as heroic symbols," Five further explains Plutarch's proposition.

 _I think we should use Klaus,_ Allison signs, and Klaus blinks.

"You want me, one of the infamous Capitol whores, to get married on TV and expect people to believe that I've really fallen in love?" he asks Allison, and she nods.

She gives him a small smile.  _You'd make a great symbol of hope_ , Allison says,  _I've seen you in the propo reels. You're always helping out kids and taking care of the fallen. You're a good man who's really in love and you can show all of Panem that what they made you do in the Capitol didn't define you._

"You could use Finnick for the same reasons." 

"If I may," Finnick says from his spot leaning against the wall in the back, "If I can, I'd prefer to just let Annie and I's wedding remain quiet and intimate, you know? I don't want to put the pressure of a massive wedding and all those cameras on her if we can help it."

Then another one of Klaus' family decides to butt in. "Klaus, you keep protesting as if you haven't dream of this day," Diego says with a crooked smile, "Or that Dave wouldn't leap at the chance to marry you."

Klaus has got to admit that he's definitely not opposed to the idea. Since he met Dave on his trip back to 8 after the 72nd Games, he's dreamed of getting married to the honest-faced man from Factory 5.

District 8's wedding tradition isn't the toasting of bread or a traditional dance like in four. It's a handfasting, where you and your fiance weave a long braid of fabrics together and then wrap it around your clasped hands while you speak your vows.

And fuck it, Klaus can't deny that he's dreamed of that with Dave. He always knew that it was never going to happen, not with President Hargreeves in charge, but he'd always wished for it anyway, dreamed of it when he was stuck in the Capitol a few times that year.

Klaus had spent years thinking that even that dream was dead, that it had died with Dave, but over the past few months- well, yeah, he wants that.

And if it's for the Rebellion, one more slight against the President who ripped the two of them apart and turned Dave into an Avox? Then all the better.

"Then let me ask Dave," Klaus says, "I'm not going to force him into anything he doesn't want."

President Handler seems like she wants to argue, but Five nods. "Of course," he says, voice and mouth firm, but his gaze is a bit understanding. "Go ask Dave, get him on board, and then let's see if we can't get a wedding whipped up around here."

Klaus doesn't need any further encouragement and he takes off running.

-

And Dave says yes. Or, more accurately, there are tears in his eyes as he nods vehemently and signs out a frantic "yes." (Or, at least, that's what Klaus thinks he's meaning to sign- the actual phrase his fingers spell out in their hurry is "pudding up my ass," which Klaus doesn't think was exactly what he meant to say.)

- 

So on what would have been the last day of this year's Victory Tour, the propos light up screens across Panem. There are two men in the gray tunics and white pants preferred by District 8 grooms, clear, fond smiles on both of their faces. One of them, with his curly dark hair and small swipes of eyeliner and crooked smile, is recognizable by everyone as the Victor of the 69th Hunger Games.

And he's getting married in District 13, surrounded by all of the other Victors, including three that, up until a few weeks ago, were used as propaganda for the Capitol.

For a few minutes, around Panem, the last remaining Victor of District 8, the District that began the Second Rebellion, marries an Avox on live television. Clips fly by of Klaus and Dave kissing, of their hands clasped together, of the dancing afterward, of the Victors celebrating, of Vanya playing the violin as a wedding gift, even of Claire Leonidas, a symbol of the revolution herself- all of it set to the strains of an old District 8 song, sung by Katniss Everdeen.

_Go out and tell our story_

_Let it echo far and wide_

_How justice was our battle_

_And how justice was denied_

(They'd originally suggested "Deep In the Meadow," but Allison had been emphatic in her rejection of it. After all, Klaus' wedding was a tribute to his and Dave's home in District 8, to Ben and what he'd sacrificed for them, to the District who had rebelled first. District 12 was a symbol, but it was not the symbol that was needed here.)

_Go out and tell our story_

_To your daughters and your sons_

_And tell them, in our struggle_

_We were not the only ones_

Other clips play in between ones from the wedding- ones of Klaus helping kids in ruined Districts, him standing behind Katniss, him being a hero for the Rebels.

There is even footage from his Games- most specifically, the footage of the tunnel to the outside of the cave system opening up and Klaus crawling through as the announcement of his win was made. The shot they show in the middle of the wedding propos is that of Klaus standing up from the exit to the tunnel, dirt ingrained in his face and a limp leg and scrawny as fuck but  _alive._

Klaus survived everything- the Games, the Capitol, the Quell- and here he is, getting his picture-perfect happy ending.

_Teach every child to raise his voice_

_And then, my brothers, then_

_Will justice be demanded_

_By ten million righteous men_

The world ignites again.

District 2, the final District left, turns to the Rebellion, and all rebels turn their eyes to the Capitol, words to old songs- their District songs, not those of the Capitol- on their lips.

_Make them hear you_

_When they hear you_

_I'll be near you_

_Again_

**Author's Note:**

> Alright so I had to do a shitton of research to find the right song for the wedding propo, more than I have to find all of the titles and quotes in this entire series + the time it took to write "beneath her sky," so you're gonna sit through some of my notes because *fuck*. (Or just skip this, I won't be able to know the difference.)  
> Alright, so District 8 sits in approximately where the states of Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, and lower Minnesota exist currently. Going back, the Midwest and those areas have been historical hotbeds of rock & roll, blues (specifically "Chicago Blues"), ragtime, and heartland rock. After learning this information, I went back to the playlist of possible songs I'd narrowed down on my phone and realized that the song "Make Them Hear You" from Ragtime was on the narrowed-down list, so it found its way into the story.
> 
> Hope you guys all enjoyed the new edition! There are sections of this story that I love to no end, and there are some sections that I'm not as happy with. Comments as to what you guys liked or didn't like are really appreciated, and can help improve my writing going forward. If you liked the story (or even if you didn't), feel free to leave a comment!


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